Back to the Pinnacles

We visited the Trona Pinnacles for the first time in February of 2009, in other words a week or so after we moved to Ridgecrest. I remember driving east out of town, bravely trying and failing to admire the desert landscape, my new home. The road to the Pinnacles is quite rough and I was very nervous about it, sure that a flash flood would come up out of nowhere, wash out the road, and strand us, because of course no one but us would ever go on such a road.

What a difference two years makes! Now I know that the Trona Pinnacles are visited constantly, that you can SEE Trona from them, if you were washed out you could WALK TO TRONA for heaven's sake, and in any case, someone would rescue you quickly so you wouldn't have to.

It's still a pretty rough road, though, and a pretty weird bleak sight, once you get there.

We were inspired to visit the Pinnacles again after watching that dumb movie, Just Add Water, that I mentioned in an earlier blog. The movie is dumb on so many levels, but the ending is so goofy you almost don't know what to do with it. After the good guys kick the bad meth dealers out of Trona, it starts to rain, and eventually Searles Lake (which has been dry for millennia, though the movie claims it's only been dry since the 1980s) fills up completely. The good guys open a restaurant on the lakeshore and also set up a desert tortoise preservation area next to it. Completely bizarre, but lovely shots of tortoises. (Oh, and sorry about the spoilers, in case anyone was going to rent it.)

But anyway, it does have some nice shots of the Pinnacles, so we decided to visit them again. Boo bears insisted on bringing their toy shopping cart, which they filled with all their Thomas trains, plus all their toy food, toy motorcycles, a stuffed Elmo, and their sippy cups. When we stopped near the Pinnacles to read some signs, they demanded that I get the cart out for them. Unfortunately, it was not easy to push across the rough ground, and this led to tears.

There were more tears soon after, when Rocket Boy decided to walk from there to the Pinnacles while I drove. Baby A elected to walk with RB, while Baby B went in the car with me. Unbeknownst to me, as soon as Baby B and I drove off, Baby A had a nervous breakdown. Rocket Boy had to put him on his shoulders and jog after me (and he has a cold and is in no shape to be jogging).

When I parked the car and got out, I could hear Baby A's screams -- it sounded as though he were being disemboweled. I couldn't see him around the bend, so I ran toward the sound. I thought perhaps the people in the white truck who had also been reading the signs when we were there had taken advantage of my leaving to grab Baby A and torture him.

But no, nothing was wrong, it was just my absence that was the problem.

And while I was running to save Baby A, Baby B went over to explore the little restroom and got his finger caught in the door briefly, so then he went running after me, screaming and crying. All in a moment, we had total disaster, and it was simply because I wasn't right there.

In three days it will be the third anniversary of my own mother's death, my own mother who I miss every single day.

It is a huge responsibility to be a mother, not just in the obvious ways. I have taken on an enormous psychological role in my two boys' lives. It is daunting, nay, overwhelming. If I think about it too much, I get dizzy.

The disaster at the Pinnacles was assuaged by a few hugs and kisses. Pretty soon we were all climbing around the tufa mounds and having a good time. And thus January continues.